Conventionally, in a conventional glass-plate working apparatus of this type, a glass-plate carrying-in section and a main cut-line forming section in proximity to the glass-plate carrying-in section are disposed. In this main cut-line forming section, a given main cut line for bend-breaking is formed on unworked plate glass, and then the unworked plate glass on which the main cut line for bend-breaking has been formed is transported to a glass plate bend-breaking section which is disposed in proximity to the main cut-line forming section. In the glass plate bend-breaking section, an edge cut line is formed on the unworked plate glass on which the main cut line has been formed. Subsequently, the unworked plate glass on which the main cut line and the edge cut line have been formed is subjected to bend-breaking. The bend-broken edge of the bend-broken glass plate is ground in a glass plate peripheral-edge grinding section which is disposed in proximity to the glass-plate bend-breaking section.
With the conventional glass-plate working apparatus described above, since the main cut-line forming section and the glass plate bend-breaking section are provided, the installation space of the apparatus becomes large. In addition, a plurality of stages of transporting the unworked plate glass, including the transportation of the unworked plate glass from the glass plate carrying-in section to the main cut-line forming section and the transportation of the unworked plate glass from the main cut-line forming section to the glass plate bend-breaking section, are required. For this reason, the conventional glass-plate working apparatus has various problems ascribable to the transportation, such as a decline in productivity due to the transport time, and the problem of a positioning error between the placement of the glass plate on the main cut-line forming section and the placement of the glass plate on the glass plate bend-breaking section.
The present invention has been devised in view of the above-described aspects, and its object is to provide a glass-plate working apparatus which is capable of overcoming the above-described problems.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a glass-plate working apparatus which is capable of fabricating glass plates of given configurations with high productivity.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a glass-plate working apparatus which is capable of forming a main cut line and an edge cut line, as desired, and of working glass plates having aimed configurations with high accuracy.